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<title>Soul Mates by Laceprince (Swampfire)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28059480">Soul Mates</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swampfire/pseuds/Laceprince'>Laceprince (Swampfire)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BDSM, Demons, Enemies to Lovers, Grim Reapers, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Trans Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:02:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,064</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28059480</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swampfire/pseuds/Laceprince</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rowan is a grim reaper just trying to do his job, but he keeps running into an annoying demon named Orpheus. They begin as rivals, but their relationship quickly becomes something messy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soul Mates</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rowan stared at the book in his hands in disbelief. A few drops of rain hit the page, soaking into the fiber. The ink did not bleed, though, as there was no ink. The page, which had until now held important information, was now blank. He slammed the book shut in frustration.</p>
<p>“Damn it!”</p>
<p>The rain began to pick up as he moved across the rooftop. He pulled up his hood to keep the water off his glasses, which already had a few specks clinging to them. Behind the spectacles was a soft face framed by messy brown hair. Lavender eyes looked up at the building next door.</p>
<p>At the edge of the roof here he had a perfect view of his target through the window. In the hospital bed lay a little girl. She was young with a gaunt face and messy blonde hair strewn over her pillow. This late at night she was sound asleep. He watched her cautiously looking for any sign of something amiss. This girl was Rowan's job tonight, or should have been if her file hadn't mysteriously dissapeared.</p>
<p>Rowan was a grim reaper, his book a list of those he was to reap. Each page held the information of someone who was about to die. His job was to take the souls of these people and transport them safely to the afterlife. However, when he had checked his book a moment ago, the page on his current target had been wiped clean.</p>
<p>He remembered a few details. The girl was eight years old. She had lived with her grandmother. She was a good student and well behaved. There was nothing too remarkable about her.The most important detail, of course, was her date and time of death. All of this had completely dissapeared from Rowan's book.</p>
<p>A bit of movement in the hospital room grabbed his attention. In the dim light he could make out the silhouette of a man standing over the girl's bed. He was quite tall. Rowan watched as the man laid a hand on the girl's forehead and a faint red glow could be seen. That wasn't normal.</p>
<p>Quickly, Rowan leapt from the roof and teleported into the hospital room. The strange man stood there. He had long black hair in a braid casually slung over his shoulder. He was wearing a priest's garb, but something told Rowan he was far from a holy man. He turned around slowly and Rowan could see that his eyes were red as blood.</p>
<p>"You have no need to be here anymore," the man said quietly but intently.</p>
<p>"Who and what are you?" Rowan demanded.</p>
<p>The man walked over to Rowan, towering over him, and brought his face close.</p>
<p>"The girl has been cured," the man insisted, "You may leave, Reaper."</p>
<p>Rowan snarled and threw out his arm, summoning his his scythe to him.</p>
<p>"Answer me," he threatened.</p>
<p>The man smiled in a way that sent a shiver down Rowan's spine. He took another step closer, prompting Rowan to take a step back.</p>
<p>"I am a demon," the man admitted, "But that doesn't matter. I cured the girl, so she no longer is scheduled to die. You. May. Leave."</p>
<p>Rowan's face curled into a sour expression. That certainly explained why the girl's file had dissapeared. However, he was not about to let a demon get away with interfering with his work. Demons and reapers were sworn enemies; demons often trying to steal the souls of humans that reapers were charged to protect.</p>
<p>"And what's in it for you? I won't let you steal her soul."</p>
<p>"I don't want her soul,” said the demon matter-of-factly, “I've made a deal with someone to save her, so I get their soul, fair and square. You reapers can't interfere in proper deals, am I right?"</p>
<p>Unfortunately, he was right. If someone had sold their soul to keep this girl alive, Rowan could not do anything about it. While reapers protected humans from having their souls stolen, it was a human's choice if they wanted to deal with a demon and willingly give up their soul. This often happened when humans were desperate for something and was outside of a reaper's job. Rowan did not let his defences down, though.</p>
<p>"I still can't let a demon run around freely," he challenged.</p>
<p>"So be it, then. Let's take this outside, shall we?" he gestured to the window and the roof beyond.</p>
<p>Rowan nodded. Humans couldn't see him unless he wanted them to, but a fight would still cause a disturbance. He watched the demon dissapear in a puff of black smoke, reappearing on the next building. Rowan then followed suit, teleporting back to the roof outside the window. Another black cloud of mist shimmered over the demon's hand, revealing a sword with an inky blade. Rowan readied his scythe.</p>
<p>Within a moment they had sprung at each other with bared teeth and bared blades. The sound of weapons clashing, unheard to all but them, drowned out the sound of the rain. Rowan swung his scythe with precision, but was blocked at every turn by the hellish sword.</p>
<p>"Why don't you just give up already?" the demon taunted.</p>
<p>"Lay down and die, you filthy creature!" Rowan returned.</p>
<p>"You'll have to do better than that if you want to kill me."</p>
<p>It seemed as if the two were evenly matched, but Rowan noticed something in the tone of the demon's voice. Was he toying with him? In an underhanded move, the demon summoned a tendril of smoke and threw it in the reaper's face. Rowan was caught by surprise and stumbled backwards. The next thing he knew he was disarmed and the demon was pointing his sword at his throat.</p>
<p>"Now then," the demon grinned wickedly, "Do you surrender?"</p>
<p>Rage welled up inside the reaper, "I'd rather die!"</p>
<p>The sharp blade pricked his skin, drawing blood. Then, the demon frowned and pulled back the sword.</p>
<p>"I don't feel like killing you. Just get out of here."</p>
<p>He sounded almost bored. Rowan stood there incredulously watching as the demon vanished the sword back to where it came from. Then the demon quickly turned away and teleported out. Rowan looked to the hospital window, but the demon was nowhere to be seen. He cursed under his breath. The demon had gotten away and he had lost the fight.</p>
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